Steven Naifeh: Found in Translation

The first solo exhibition in Abu Dhabi in 50 years of works by Steven Naifeh, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, businessman and artist – particularly of large-scale geometric abstractions that owe much to hos appreciation of geometric art in the Middle East.

Naifeh, whose family is of Arab origin though his parents were US diplomats, grew up in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia before pursuing art history at both Princeton and Harvard. His practice is closely tied to his family’s experience in the UAE and his exposure to Islamic art; Naifeh’s large works reference the glorious Middle Eastern geometric heritage, while integrating the newer traditions of geometric abstraction of Europe and America from Kazimir Malevich to Sol Lewitt. The result is a body of work that is both physically imposing and intricately wrought. In both paintings and sculptures, Naifeh takes specific precedents from millennium-old Islamic and Arab prototypes that were inspired by mathematical principles, removes them from their temporal and material context, and reimagines them in the world of twentieth-century international art.

The exhibition is organised under the patronage of HE Zaki Nusseibeh, Cultural Advisor to the President of the UAE.

To 8 December.

Above: Steven Naifeh, Saida XIII (1998)